This was the first time we had to wait for a table at Benedict. Our bodies having finally adjusted properly to Israel time, we arrived right on rush hour. Boo! Luckily, given that it was just the two of us, the wait was only a few minutes.

One of our favourite in-jokes from our honeymoon in Israel was what we liked to call Traditional Israeli Customer Service. If you’re accustomed to travelling in countries with a strong customer-service ethos (say Japan, or Belgium), your experiences in Israel might come as a bit of a shock. Still, if you keep an open mind and a good sense of humour with you at all times, it’s a fun little quirk of the culture that can provide endless entertainment.

Are they ignoring you? Do they know you’re there? Probably. That’s Israel! 🙂

Working out the logistics of a trip to a country as controversial as Israel can be a bit of a nightmare. You might be lucky enough to have an amazing travel agent to manage it all for you. If not, never fear: we’ve got it all in one place on Our Honeymoon in Israel. This is our guide to everything you need to know about travelling to Israel.

Visas to Enter Israel

For Australian and Kiwi tourists travelling on an Aust/NZ passport: you don’t need to apply for a visa ahead of time. Upon arrival, you’ll fill out some forms, and they will issue you a three-month tourist visa on the spot (free of charge). They might also ask you a few questions about why you’ve come to Israel, what you plan to do there, and when you’ll be leaving. You’ll receive a tiny slip of paper (it looks like a fancy EFTPOS receipt), and you need to keep this on you at all times. We kept ours tucked inside our passports, and we were asked to show them on several occasions. You’ll also need it to depart without problems.

Israel has similar arrangements with a number of other countries (including the U.S., U.K., and much of Europe), but it’s always best to double check with your Israeli embassy or your own government before jetting off. If you’re one of the unlucky ones that does need to apply in advance, there’s a visa application form available online, which needs to be sent ahead along with copies of your passport and roundtrip ticket (and, of course, a small fee).

Bear in mind that these rules apply for tourists only: if you’re planning to work or live (>3 months) in Israel, you’ll need a different visa.

For those of you lucky enough to have no dietary restrictions, the ability of a country to cater to your needs (literally!) is not a high-priority criterion when deciding on a honeymoon destination. Unfortunately, I can’t count myself among you. I am (sigh) the gluten-free girl. That means wherever I travel, I need to spend a bit of time researching which local cuisine options won’t kill me, and how to ask about them in the native tongue. You might be surprised to learn that Israel is excellent at accommodating the needs of travellers in this way. That’s why this edition of the Ultimate Guide to Eating in Israel will highlight what’s available for the intolerant and observant among us. There are restaurant listings available everywhere (Best vegetarian restaurants in Tel Aviv! Best kosher meals in Jerusalem! etc.), so this guide will focus on more general information about what’s available, wherever you go.

Vegetarian/Vegan

You can’t swing a cat in Tel Aviv without hitting a vegetarian/vegan menu. Veggie options are available everywhere – moreso than kosher, even (see below). This is partially because a lot of traditional Israeli foods fall into this category without modification (e.g., hummus, falafel), but also because Tel Aviv prides itself on being a cosmopolitan hub of progressives and bohemians and those communities more inclined to chose a plant-based life.

It won’t come as any great surprise, after our adventures on Day 7 (a road trip to Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee), that we were pretty bloody exhausted and in need of a lie-in upon our return to Tel Aviv. We wanted to shore up our reserves for what we were sure was going to be a fantastic afternoon!

(Spoiler alert: things did not go to plan.)

We had planned to make another sojourn out to Jerusalem, on our own steam this time. I’d been looking forward to checking out the world-renowned Holocaust memorial museum (Yad Vashem) ever since we first Googled “things to do in Israel“. We were also hoping to plant a tree at the biblical land plot, located about 20 minutes from the Jerusalem city centre. Museum entry is free, planting a tree is pretty reasonable in terms of cost, so if we could manage navigating public transport to and from each site, we were in for an awesome and fiscally responsible day!

For us gentiles, flicking through a beginner’s guide to kosher is probably a good idea before heading to Israel. We didn’t (of course) but we picked it up fairly quickly as we went along. Most of the kosher guides online are aimed at people who were raised in the Jewish faith, who already keep kosher, or who plan to convert. In the interest of catering to people more like us – curious tourists, eager to respect local traditions – I figured a beginner’s guide to kosher our way would be a good addition to this Ultimate Guide to Eating in Israel series.

Kosher is a Hebrew word that translates roughly to “prepared” – foods permitted and prepared according to the Torah (the basis of all Jewish law). Anything not-kosher is called “treif”. I’m certainly not a position to give a religious education here, but this guide should cover off everything you need to know ordering food in Israel as a curious/respectful tourist.